A Varna man’s lawyer will read his trial transcript over the next two-and-a-half months before asking for a retrial date. An appellate court threw out 28-year old Bradley French’s conviction and 30-year prison sentence for the murder of 38-year old Joshua Scaman of Oglesby.
Prosecutors said French went out looking for trouble and found it the morning he shot Scaman with a razor-tipped arrow from a compound bow. The appellate judges said French should have been allowed to make more of a self-defense case. Testimony in the case was that Scaman had been harassing a woman French knew.
French and his lawyer Maureen Williams were in court today and are to go before Judge H. Chris Ryan for another update in March.